A Happy Family for the taking

For Mary Tucker, real-estate was more than a career, it was a lifestyle It was also for the most part, a distraction from her troubles.

The 40 year old had three children, but after her divorce, only retained custody of one, her daughter Rae. They had moved to New York from Texas so as to start over, yet her Ex-husband was challenging custody rights despite Rae long since aging out of where the parents had any say on who they lived with. It was all stupid, yet he couldn’t get it through his thick skull.

Mary took a deep breath, closed her eyes and rubbed them. No, she shouldn’t let him get to her like that. She was here to start over, and she would. Suddenly a loud noise takes her attention.

“Hey mom”, Rae said as he entered the front door. “Emily wanted to come over, is that cool?” The teen was referring to a short curly hair brunette standing next to her named Emily Mackenzie, who happened to be the girl’s best friend.

“Yeah that’s fine”, Mary said. “How was school?”

“It was O.K I guess”, Rae replied, clearly eager to leave the conversation.

“Just O.K?”

“Yeah. Uh…we don’t have any homework, so we’re going to play something on the ps5, is that all right.”

Mary raised an eyebrow at this. “You sure you don’t have any homework?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. You don’t trust me or something?” Rae snapped, her bought of anger visible on her rounded features.

“No, No, I trust you”, Mary said defensively, trying not to lose her cool. “I’m just being nosy; you know with being with your mom and all.”

“Yeah whatever, come on Emily.”

“Bye Ms. Tucker” The squareish faced girl replied before following her friend out of the room.

Mary smiled at this, though no one saw it. She was proud of her daughter, and would not let any one take her away from her. At this point, she had work to do, and began to head back to her home office to finish it.

Suddenly and without explanation, she stopped in place. Elsewhere in the house, Rae and Emily also stopped in place as well. Two individuals who were not stopped however entered through the unlocked front door.

***

As Mark and Katie entered the house, a wide smile was on Katie’s face.

“Oh man, this place is even better than I expected”, Katie said slowed.

“Why”, Mark asked, not seeing anything special. A house was a house in his mind.

“Well it’s big for one”, Katie started. “Can you imagine how many frozen people we can fit in here?”

Suddenly Mark could see his friends point. He was now imagining the room filled with his frozen classmates, standing still, waiting to be played with.

“O.K, yeah, I see your point.” Looking around, he spoofed a short brunette sitting at the kitchen counter. “Is that here?” Mark asked, hoping the answer was yes.

“Indeed, that is”, Katie said happily. “I recognize here when she has come by the house.”

“Oh thank God”, Mark said, glad they would be spared the headache of looking for her. “Mary stop”, Mark called out, not wanting to waste any time, even if it currently was irrelevant.

Katie for her part was rubbing her hands in excitement. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

“I only told you about my abilities yesterday”, Mark pointed out.

“It’s along time in dog years, O.K” Katie pouted.

Mark was about to day something witty or sarcastic when he saw something in the corner of his eye, more specifically someone. “Oh” He said, not hiding the shock in his voice.

“What is it”, Katie asked, now concerned what her friend was seeing.

“She uh…. She doesn’t live alone”, Mark said as he pointed at two teen girls paused while walking down a hallway.

“What?” Katie asked, not expecting that development. Turning away from the frozen Mary, her brown eyes widened as she spotted who Mark was pointing at. “Ah crap.”

At this point, both friends made their way to where the two girls stood.

“Are we sure they both live here?” Katie asked as she circled around both girls. They both where brunettes and were certainly cute, especially since they were shorter than the average.

“Hmmm, well both have backpacks so there should be some form of ID.” Mark said. He then unzipped the bag of then brunette with blue eyes, with him noting she looked a bit like Mary, and assumed this was her daughter. After a few minutes of searching, he found what he was looking for, the girl's driver’s license.

“Rae Tucker, looks like she does live here. Must be Mary’s daughter”, Mark announced. For her part, Rae said nothing, her blue eyes simply staring forward blankly.

“This one isn’t”, Katie said, referring the curly haired girl standing behind Rae. “Emily Mackenzie, lives at a different address. Must be friends with Rae here.” Emily simply stared forward with blank hazel eyes. “I guess she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time” Katie announced as she put the teen’s ID back.

“Wait, what do you mean by that”, Mark asked. “Are…are you wanting to freeze her as well.”

“I didn’t say that….though I did think it.” Katie responded as he turned the girl around by her waist. Emily simply wobbled in place on her sock clad feet.

“But why?” Mark asked, genuinely curious as to the reason.

“Well, we came here to freeze Mary, and since she has a daughter, you will need to freeze her too.”

“O.K” Mark said as he followed along.

“Well, since Emily is here, we can’t just freeze these two and leave her unfrozen in a house of frozen women. She certainly would ask questions.”

“O.K, but what happened to having a good logical reason to freezing them?”

“Oh, I have don’t you worry about that.”

Mark raised by eyebrow at this. “And do you plan to share with the rest of the class” he asked sarcastically.

Katie gave him a stink eye, which caused Mark to shudder to his core. “Her address happens to be on my street, and I know for a fact that it is a foster home, a badly run one at that. It would be to the surprise of no one if Emily here ran away.”

Mark looked at Katie for a few seconds before deciding she wans trying, and accepting her logic. “O.K, sounds good to me. I trust you.”

“Well good, because I was going to suggest that Rae and Emily here join your personal collection.”

“Really” Mark asked wide-eyed. He could feel the excitement in his pants as he looked for the two paused teens before him.

“Yeah really”, Katie said. “I just wanted Mary there, plus it’s your power, so you should have the larger collection.”

“You know what? I accept that logic. Rae, Emily stop”, Mark said out loud. Although nothing happened visually, he could feel it inside of him that the two girls were now frozen. “So are we leaving them here then?”

“Eh, I think we should take all them home for now, then bring them back in like a month and make sure all our excuses have taken hold.”

“O.K” Mark readily agreed. Suddenly his mood turned sour. “Freezing nine people in two days, that’s a bit much dont you think?”

“Yeah you probably take a break from perfectly freezing people for a while after this. Maybe you should just give it up for lent.”

“But that doesn’t start until March!” Mark complained. “Also I’m not catholic.”

“Super lent then”, Katie said surging.

“I don’t think that’s a thing.”

“Do you want my advice or not” Katie asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“Yes I do”, Mark said defensively. “I pledge myself to your teachings master.”

Katie looked annoyed. “I don’t really like the comparison to a sith lord.”

“Well too bad”, Mark said smugly.

Katie playfully punched Mark in the shoulder. “Come on, let’s get these three in the car and then drop them off.”

With that, Mark and Katie carefully carried their new playthings to Nadia’s stolen vehicle before heading to their respective homes.